


Into The Light

by Basmathgirl



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Gen, H/C bingo, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Episode AU: s04e13 Journey's End, Prompt Fic, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-27
Updated: 2017-07-27
Packaged: 2018-12-07 19:21:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11630211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Basmathgirl/pseuds/Basmathgirl
Summary: Life continued to be painful for the Metacrisis Doctor, now named Geoffrey. A life that would end very soon.





	Into The Light

“I am the resurrection and the life,” the vicar at the front of the altar chanted reverently from memory.

Geoffrey ducked his head in silent prayer, listening to the words and hearing them on several levels. Without meaning to, he wheezed; gasping in a much needed breath. It was getting worse. The pain in his chest throbbed in rhythm to his failing heart. 

“Are you alright, Sweetheart?” Jackie quietly asked him with concern, placing a hand on his arm in comfort as they sat side by side on the church pew.

Truth be told, she’d never had much time for religion and churches, especially since her Pete had been killed outside their friends’ wedding. But since she had been given him back in this alternate universe, she had returned to her childhood habit of attending a church to give thanks for her blessings. No one else had been keen to accompany her, beyond Geoffrey. Not even Tony. 

Poor, frail Geoffrey. He had become her constant companion during the short time they had lived together in this universe. In many ways he was just like the Doctor; but in other, more meaningful ways, he was nothing like him. It was as if a switch turned on and off. At times he reminded her of someone else entirely. Now if only she could work out who…

“Not really,” Geoffrey whispered on a laboured breath, breaking through her thoughts. To add emphasis to his words, he broke into a hacking cough.

The phrase ‘coughing up a lung’ crossed Jackie’s mind but she daren’t express it. That would be mentioning the elephant in the room. A human body and a Time Lord mind were proving to not be a match made in heaven. And the more he coughed, the more she feared that he would not last long in this world. To add to her concern, he had refused to be examined by any doctor; said their treatment would only delay the inevitable.

As he sat gasping for breath by her side, she felt a tear roll down her cheek. She didn’t want to lose him. Not now. He’d become like a son to her over the months and weeks she had known him. A life counted in days but not years; and by the looks of things, it never would be. Did he have a death wish, she couldn’t help wondering. 

Making a snap decision, she grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him from his seat. “Come on. We’ll get you home and into bed,” she softly proclaimed, “as soon as possible.”

He tried to protest, “I…” But he just didn’t have the strength anymore to fight her, let alone his condition. 

With a bit of effort, and the help of Jackie’s support, he made it to the church entrance, and grabbed hold of the stonework around the door to hold his body up. He fought hard to keep the fresh air in his lungs. Why couldn’t it just end? 

Then a terrible pain gripped his chest, causing him to lunge forward in agony.

To the side of him, Jackie shrieked, “Geoffrey!”

But he had no words left to comfort her. This was it: the end. Finally.

Falling to the paved stones below him, his limbs involuntarily curled around his form in self-comfort while his head fell backwards to claw the air for oxygen; letting him view the sky for one last and final time.

His mouth opened to say the word “goodbye” but it never managed to form it properly. Instead, he stilled, caught in a grotesque pose like a fossilised Pompeii artefact.

Jackie was on her knees, listening to his chest and hearing no heartbeat, then denial began to set in. “You can’t be dead. No no no! You’ll be alright, you’ll see. We’ll fix this,” she insisted as she pawed at his body, not knowing what she was trying to achieve. Turning her head, she yelled, “Somebody help him! Somebody! Anybody! Help!”

Several people ran from inside the church. They lifted the distressed Jackie out of the way, felt for a pulse, phoned for an ambulance, told themselves they weren’t too late; all without any effect.

“It’s his heart,” Jackie tried to tell them. “He’s got a weak heart.”

“I’m a doctor,” someone said, but she was having trouble focusing on them. So when he told her a minute later, “I’m sorry but he’s gone,” it was all a meaningless blur through her tears. 

The paramedics who arrived seconds later confirmed there was nothing they could do.

“I want to go with him,” she insisted when the ambulance took Geoffrey away. “I’m not leaving him.” 

They didn’t exactly argue with her, but she fought her way into the ambulance to sit by his side anyway. It was her way of coping with the inevitable.

Through a veil of tears she phoned Pete to let him know the news, and to meet her at the hospital morgue to arrange things for the funeral Geoffrey had planned.

~o~o~

“I still can’t believe he’s gone,” she told Pete as he offered as much comfort as he could.

They were stood next to the open casket that contained a familiar body, peering in at the shell that had once been Geoffrey. The sombre atmosphere of the chapel of rest that been created in the Tyler mansion grounds fitted their mood perfectly. 

“We brought him home to our own chapel, Jacks. It’s what he would have wanted,” Pete reasoned, trying to find some small piece of information that could throw a positive light on their situation. “One of the benefits of being rich enough, I suppose. When we bought this place I never thought we’d be laying someone in here.”

“He’s with family,” Jackie stated on a sniff and then dissolved into tears again. “We’re all he’s got.”

Pete hugged her closer. “Shall we close the coffin?”

“Not just yet,” she murmured into his shoulder. “I can’t…”

“It’s alright. We can close it properly tomorrow,” he kindly offered. “There’s plenty of time if you want to come and see him again.” 

With a nod, and still maintaining their tight embrace, they walked slowly out of the private chapel to carry out the finishing touches for the impending funeral. 

Left behind in the casket, Geoffrey slept peacefully on to eternity. 

Then suddenly his jaw dropped open and a puff of luminous air escaped. His skin began to shimmer then glow as though something was being steadily wound up. Microseconds later, energy burst throughout his body, out through his fingertips, in a stream of golden rays of light. 

His whole body lurched upwards, letting his lungs fill with much needed air. After two such gasps, he sat up and took in his surroundings; partially recognising the place despite the fog that temporarily filled his brain. 

“Resurrection,” he noted, “regeneration. Didn’t think I could do it.” 

He then closed his eyes to assess his body, mentally flagging all the differences he discovered. Most of it was still the same, compared to how he used to be, but there were major changes that had swept away the human element into the background. 

This new male body was still slim, yet it felt younger around the face. Lifting a hand, he touched his fringe and pulled the hair downwards so that he could see it more clearly.

“Ginger!” he gleefully declared.


End file.
